Whats the status with NOLO software updates

Hi, I (and I am sure many other users) would like to know what the current status of NOLO software updates, drivers, and firmware currently is, and how far away we actually are from a next release.

I (and many others) backed NOLO in the original Kickstarter, and I fully understand that when I backed it it may be a while before the software was quite there, and it would be a little rough at first, and I still think NOLO is super cool tech and do not regret backing it.

Though NOLO hardware was first shipped to backers in late June, and we are now in mid October with little noticeable advancements to the software (It being reportedly worse for some people), and my VR experience still being the same rough mess it was on day one (which is still kind of cool, but not quite good enough). The promise was that untethered VR was being developed (and hopefully still is) in partnership with the Riftcat team, and they were working to make the overall experience better, but that is not yet finished (The Beta is unusable for me), with a (currently) 2 week old post from the Riftcat team saying that most of the work is done, and is relying on a new firmware update from you guys, before it can be released. So at least an ETA on that update would be good. The other major problem is with the touchpad mapping (though hopefully fixed in upcoming firmware), which straight up doesn't work in some games (causes constant backwards movement).

Other than that it would be great if the NOLO team could be a lot more open with it's users about software/firmware updates, and let us know if there are any delays in the schedule and what is causing them. I am a developer and excited to get into some VR development using NOLO, but have mostly been unable to due to the current sub-par experience provided, and starting to think that NOLO will be super-succeeded by newer (and possibly more affordable) technology before it has even had a chance to work properly.

Comments

The software is in a terrible state right now. You have 2 different incompatible SDKs on PC. The SDK that supports the Windows driver (and Nolo PC software etc.) is quite out of date and doesn't support things like throwing etc. Then you have the driverless SDK which Pimax, myself and who knows who else is using, which hasn't been updated for quite a while. That DLL is called "NoLo_USBHID.dll". Unfortunately, the Windows driver (and PC software) is shipped with a DLL by that name which is something completely different, so I can't just look for that DLL in the user's Nolo installation and use it, I have to provide it myself (but it was constantly changing and somewhat buggy).

What I'd like to do is use the PC software SDK if the user has it installed, or the USBHID SDK if the user supplies it (I don't want to ship Nolo DLLs with my software as most users of the software don't have Nolo), but I can't do that as I need to build a different version for the 2 SDKs (they share the same header files and structure names but aren't interchangeable without rebuilding the software, there isn't an easy way, if there is any way at all, to make a binary that supports both SDKs). So I'm left in the situation of having to choose between the 2. In that scenario I would normally just choose the PC software SDK and be done with it, but that SDK is vastly inferior to the newer one (which is an incomplete work in progress).

I'm not holding out a lot of hope for Nolo, as their ship has pretty much sailed at this point and it is too expensive for what it is (and too flakey and poorly performing for the price point, if not all price points). Their main partner (Pimax) has adopted Valve Lighthouse tracking for their next headsets, so I'm not sure who their market is now, as this stuff is super weak sauce compared to anything else around right now at similar price points.

There is a market for something like Nolo, implemented with Lighthouse tech. It has to be wireless (bluetooth) from the start and have decent software backing it up, and cost maximum $99.

NOLO was designed for Mobile VR primarily, and from my tests that works fairly well.

The problem is almost all VR content for motion controls is understandably desktop only.

NOLO has always worked alright for me, especially wireless with RiftCat and WalkinVR or Driver4VR.

It is not a competitor to Rift or Vive, but it is a better VR emulator than a Leap Motion or complicated PSMoveService.

If NOLO was more open with their software the community could help more. But right now its a very hard sell considering that PC VR is going to have steep drops in price in the coming few years, and more mobile VR competitors are coming soon.

Yeah, I'm sad for them that they couldn't keep the $99 price. That's the sweet spot for this, and would have driven a lot more adoption in mobile and desktop. The bigger problem is that there is no standard for this kind of thing on mobile, so there was never a chance to get much happening there (same chicken and egg scenario, no apps, no reason to buy, noone buys, no reason to develop apps). They really should have pushed the SteamVR angle on Oculus DK2, OSVR HDK2 and PSVR. As those are somewhat useless now on PC without something like this. I demoed this at a VR event recently (with my software) and the reaction was "cool, but too expensive". I did not speak to one person who would pay more than $99, as it is significantly worse in every aspect when compared to a $399 Oculus (which it comes very close to price-wise when you include any kind of semi-decent HMD).

Driver4VR Kinect and Leap features are neat for people without NOLO (and Kinect is just in general super cool), but as @Tux0Topo said, it's mainly for free move and rotation without needing to physically turn around or move

Ok, that's good to know, more specifically what advantages could Kinect (with Driver4VR) add to a front facing Nolo setup. I know it allows for body tracking, but does that actually make much of a difference in practice?

With the latest update of 0102017093 I am getting that annoying blanking out again if the controllers are blocking the head sensor for a brief moment. Anyone else back to this? It was fix before were you would not loose view for 3-5 seconds. Now its nearly impossible to play again if it I have to punch, block, or aim in a game. Which is every vr game I have. How to I go back to the old update were it does not suck ass?